Kathmandu

We had a great nights sleep as there was no wedding next door. We set off just after 8am looking for a place to have breakfast. We found a tiny little shop under a stairway with one table and 3 seats called Western Nepal restaurant. We had a set breakfast of tea, toast and jam, 2 eggs and a potato and tomato fry for 100 rupee ($1.19). It was excellent food and value and we will be going back tomorrow. After breakfast we headed to the Northface sale but it was very crowded and didn't have what we were looking for. We ended up going to the Mountain hardware shop and purchasing a pair of 4 season gloves each.

We headed back to the hotel and managed to get all our pictures loaded to flickr and the blog up to date before checking out. We walked to our new hotel, the Kathmandu Guesthouse, being asked every few meters if we wanted a taxi or a cyclo. David found a hairdresser in the hotel and had a haircut with clippers ready for the start of our new tour. He loved the haircut which included a head massage and is already planning to have another one when we return after the trek.

After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets trying to do some shopping but most of the shops were closed. We saw many of the shops that were open pulling their goods inside and shutting the roller shutters and a group marching down the street. In front of the group some westerners were running. We went into a shop that was open and they explained to us that there was a strike on and students were  protesting against the unsafe prisons as someone had died in prison recently. He said he was taking a risk being open and would shut down the shutters if the protesters came his way as they would smash the shop front. David commented that he was feeling a little uneasy as he was not sure how volatile the situation could get, so we took a different route back to the hotel and later on went back out and shops slowly began to open again. We bumped into Carli and Bronwyn who had been stuck inside a shop when they closed, they had also seen a group of riot police near the more expensive shops where we had been in the morning. We were also advised that the strike may continue tomorrow and even on Monday when we need to head off to start the trek.